We caught up with Coby Dick from Papa Roach before their headline show at the Academy in Birmingham to talk about the hard time's the band have had, their fan base, horror films, blood and guts, their new album 'Metamorphosis' and so much more, take a seat and read on as Coby Dick has a lot to say.

Hello and thanks for taking time to do this interview.
All good man, my pleasure, my pleasure

You have had a busy couple of years with Dave leaving the band, Tony becoming your new drummer as well as creating your new album ‘Metamorphosis’, can you tell us a bit about these happenings.
We have gone through a lot of changes, I would say touring over ‘The Paramour Sessions’ was a really fucking hard time for this band, there were moments on it when we didn’t know if we would be able to make it through and if we were still going to be a band because of broken relationships, people falling apart and just living out there on the road and people just being absolutely miserable, that was really tough. Dave had to leave for a little while and Tony came in to replace Dave out on the road and we were instantly having a great time again, we were like fuck yeah!!, then Dave came back and we were like yes Dave come back we love you man let’s do this, so we did it again but it just wasn’t working, so Tony had to come out again and Dave chose to leave again, and it just felt like it was the right thing to do, end of the day I love Dave like a brother, there was a lawsuit, there was some shit said, lots of emotional shit going on, but at the end of the day we got on the phone and was like I fucking love you man but this just isn’t working and it’s not right, and Dave knows that he is doing the best thing for him in his life and we are doing the best thing for the band, it’s all good now we fired management, we fired so many people and now we have like a whole new organisation, the band was solid and we wanted the same feeling with the people around us and that’s why we got new management and they totally get rock and roll and totally understand our vision, and when there are road blocks we going around them instead of keep running at them, and that’s why we released ‘Hollywood Whore’ for a free download and let the fans discover it themselves, instead of go traditional style and tell everyone this is our new single and ram it down their fucking throats, we wanted to give our fans a gift and the internet is the wild wild west right now

‘Metamorphosis’ was released at the end of March, are you happy with how the album has gone down with both the press and your fans so far?
I mean for us whatever the press says is whatever the press says we have had great reviews we have had horrible reviews and it’s just people’s opinions and for me as far as the success goes we didn’t really think about it but as soon as we put tickets on sale for these shows in the UK they sold out and we felt really fucking great because the last time we came to the UK we wasn’t selling out these venues, so it feels like there is an momentum going on and a reconnection going on and I think that’s to do with a lot of perseverance, as far as record sales and all that we all know that the record business is just slowly declining so it’s not all about record sales it’s about your connection with your fans and how you keep your fans in your website community, our website as of a year ago is up 180% which means there’s a lot more kids coming to paparaoch.com and we are doing things that are a little more focused to the internet and that’s great because it’s that direct relationship that we are trying to foster with our fans, only time will tell but everything’s really good man, if we sell a gazillion records that great and if we go just Gold that’s cool with me to as we are still fucking packing houses.

‘Metamorphosis’ opens with ‘Days Of War’ which is a big sounding instrumental track, what made you open the album with an instrumental track this time around?
Our whole goal with this record was to make something that could go over live, cause that’s something about our band that we pride ourselves on the most is our live shows, when we were writing this the band were jamming on the stage, kind of like a rock and roll death march type thing and we all kind of looked at each other and said this would be the perfect kind of intro to our live shows and then it seamlessly goes into ‘Change Or Die’, it gets people pumped up and ready to go, the last few shows we have been doing its explosive and fun it really steps up the show for a big fucking Pow pow pow which is all good.

Can you tell us about what themes and stories you cover within the songs on ‘Metamorphosis?’
This record lyrically is very diverse; I found myself really paying attention to the world around me and some, of the songs are socially concuss for instance when we were writing this record back in April 2008 we wrote this song ‘Lifelines’ whilst watching what was going on down in my neighbourhood, watching closing signs going up, Sacramento was the number one place in America for home closure signs going up in America it was bad to see this happening and then one of my really good friends she’s a hair stylist she had a salon business got so bad she had to shut it down then she couldn’t afford her bills to pay for her house, now she is living off credit cards and going in debt just to get by, to hear these stories and desperation and hopelessness was just the inspiration for ‘Lifelines’ and the thing about it is I am just a fucking rock and roller I’m not a politician I’m not regulator, I’m not a CEO and I saw this happening in my community and the questions to these regulators and CEO’s is what the fuck were you doing when this was all going down here, were you just watching it happen, there was nothing in place to help people they just let it crash and to me I believe that we need to hold them accountable, and then you bail out all these major corporations who are running their business right down to the ground and then they tax the US tax payer dollar of all these people who are just barely managing to get by to bail out these guys not just thousands but fucking millions of dollars and its totally unjustified like I said we need to hold these people accountable.

Also another song ‘Had Enough’ cantered around unjustified war, I have been affected by war personally in my life, my father was drafted to Vietnam and it really ultimately was one of the things that really destroyed my father he came back a broken man and they didn’t treat the veterans well when they came back they just spit in their faces and this was what my father went through so he was a broken man, drugs and alcohol and all that.

(Jerry Walks in to grab the hair drying and Coby shouts get that hair done baby to him, Jerry swiftly leaves with the hair dyer in his hand)

And that war was one of the direct issues on why my father was destroyed and why my family split and I have had enough of the violence I have had enough of the fucking war and it just seems that you turn on the news and that’s all you see violence, war, destruction and I have just had enough of it, so I wrote about that, I know I’m not going to change the world with this but I’m going to connect with people and if more people become aware and educate themselves with affairs in the world right now then maybe we can change things.

Then there is also songs like ‘Hollywood Whore’ I am looking at that and we released that first because we wanted to get people’s attention with something that’s a bit striking, it’s like these fucking cunts represent this hollow empty culture they are obsessed with it and its created this thing not just in America but worldwide where all these girls are just so sucked up and skinny and that’s what’s considered beautiful you know, these girls feel bad for themselves because there not fucking sucked up skinny little rails so then the next thing you know they are doing the fucking Hollywood starve and Barth, you know Hollywood whore get the fuck out of the way because we want to come through with something real.

But then we take you to a song called ‘I Almost Told You That I Love You’ which is like a total sleaze rock nasty song about fucking and for us to be able to break down all these walls as song writers and as a lyricist to go to all these different places is the freedom of making music and Papa Roach is not a one trick pony and some of the fans might not like that song as it’s a little nasty but who isn’t sexual, there are so many people in this world because we love fucking, so the record is very diverse it has a load of issues on it, it’s just an expression of me, myself and my view of the world around us.

You made a video for ‘Hollywood Whore’, the video features more blood than A Nightmare On Elm Street film, what was it like to film?
It was great, I remember when we was reading about it and the girl had to look like Paris Hilton because she is the epitome of 'Hollywood Whore'

(Laughter)

And I remember I was reading the treatment and it said she was laying on the floor or dishevelled, trying to pull herself together and she finally gets up to the bridge and I remember this line to this day "and a glorious bloodbath pursues" and I was like fuck yes, I just imaged in my head that film From Dusk Till Dawn where it goes from this one thing to this whole other world, and we wanted to do something striking, shocking and insane. The way we did the bloodbath was we used these big leaf blowers, do you know what I’m talking about?
Yeah sure do
Anyway they cut holes in the top, and they had 2 litre bottles of syrup and fake blood and then turn it on.

(Coby then goes on to show and explain how things happened such as where the cameras were, the leaf blowers and how the fake blood pissed all over his face feeling like pins and needles with the force of it)

When we finished shooting the video we were completely drenched in fake blood and we like alright cool we need to get a shower now and they were like sorry there are no showers here.

(Laughter)

We then had to drive back to the fucking hotel in our rented car sitting on plastic bags with fake blood on us with everyone looking at us thinking what the fuck is going on, so it was a really fun video to shoot, it was a guy called Jessie Davey who is from Devizes in the UK who did the video and he is a very creative guy with such a creative mind.

You have also recently shot a video for your next single ‘Lifeline’ what is the theme of the video?
We wanted to take this video to a different place and show what is currently going on in the United States, it’s about this fella who gets fired just like so many people in America losing their jobs, then he has this internal struggle within himself, like how am I going to go home and tell my family that all these bills that I can’t afford to pay and upon that I have now lost my job and we wanted to give it some light at the end of the tunnel, so the fella walks into his house, his wife see's him and smiles, then his child see's him and puts his arms around him and smiles and then the fella has this realization within himself that I have my family and this is what really means the most to me, this was what we wanted to convey in the music video as this is the real shit, like I said we are a band that’s really diverse, we are going to make a video called 'I Almost Told You That I Love You' here in like two weeks and its going to be out of control and that’s the diversity of Papa Roach

Your songs right from the beginning have always influenced people and helped people get through tough times, how does it make you feel knowing that people relate to your songs in such a strong and emotional way?
It’s amazing, I have met some many people that have said 'Last Resort' helped get them through some of the most deepest and darkest times of their life’s, or 'Broken Home' so many people came from that or 'Scars' coming from a fucked up relationship and having that realization of going I had to cut myself off from you to survive and to be a good person and take care of myself, and even 'Lifelines' just that desperation looking for that way for someone to help you out there, for me ultimately all this connects me and helps me feel human and gives me a purpose as sometimes when I wake up I’m like I love my family so much I want to see them and then when I go out on stage and afterword’s I talk to the fans and they tell me their story I then become glad that I am doing this and connecting people in this way.

Music is a service to people and once I write it, it's no longer mine it’s the fans and for us its very fulfilling, I met a girl who last night who was talking to me and she used to be a cutter and I was a cutter for a while when I was in my deep, dark insanity of alcohol and depression and she was like that song made me stop cutting, it just inspired to me to stop it, and I told her you need to go talk to people you can’t keep on going like this, it doesn’t have to be a counsellor but a friend, just go and open up.

Pain is a mother fucker at times and people don’t know how to deal with it. Like me I was an alcoholic drug addict and I used to hide under that shelter because I don’t want to feel it but shredding that away from my life, I have slowly but surely over the past 5 years become more comfortable in my skin and don’t fucking hate myself anymore which is an beautiful thing.

You became extremely popular all over the world during 2000 and 2001 with the release of ‘Infest’, but were soon nearly forgotten about with many people saying you wouldn’t last, how does it feel to still be here and rocking out many years on proving all these people wrong?
It feels great man, it feels fucking amazing, we are a band that will never give up, it was the era of the garage rock revolution that came in , some of them are great such as The Strokes they had some good songs don’t get me wrong but that was just what was next so we were written off, it was quite hard for us to go through but the thing is that we are fighters and that’s what we do to write the best music when we are desperate and going through hard times we write the best stuff and that’s been a good thing for our band to not always be on top, where we are right now I don’t take this for granted and am totally humbled to it and thankful, it feels great it feels fucking radical.

One of my favourite ever Papa Roach songs is ‘Tightrope’.
That’s awesome.
How did it become a hidden track on ‘Infest?’, and will you be playing it tonight?
We are actually not playing it tonight, we have been working on an acoustic version, it’s like an alternate version of it and we just haven’t been brave enough to break it out because it’s so stripped down but it is something that we are going to do in the future and we have been cutting some acoustic versions of songs and that is something that we are going to look forward to in the future, I think it would be great to release as an single to the 'Greatest Hits' record because that song, the music and lyrics to the song I just fucking love them, it’s one of my favourite set's of lyrics ever.
So how did it become just a secret track?
Just because it was so different from the rest of the album, and we came up in the era when every album had to have a secret track and now I’m like fuck the secret track just listen to the damn record. I am glad you dig that track though
Yeah, it’s awesome.

You played in Manchester on Thursday and London yesterday how did these shows go down and what’s it like to be back in the UK?
Fucking amazing, amazing crowd’s great energy, Manchester was out of control we found out yesterday that someone took a shit in the crowd whilst we played so we literally dropped the shit out of Manchester and that was kind of funny. London was fucking amazing we played the Forum last night and it was out of control, the crowd was jumping and going ducking berserk, moshpit the whole nine and I love to see that, I love to see audiences that are just as energetic as the band, as when we grow older with our age and this and that we don’t want to be one of those bands that gets lazy on stage, that’s why I try and get a little more fit so I can take an hour and an half and annihilate up there.

Tonight is the last show of your short UK tour, what can we expect from it?
Fucking knockdown, drag out hour and an half of rock and roll, hits and fucking fan favourites and a band that fucking loves doing what they are doing, we are not jaded and we don’t get up there and go here we go again, we are like we fucking need this like a fucking drug addict needs his fucking cocaine, straight up.

Dear Superstar and Filter have been supporting you on the shows? What’s it been like touring with these bands?
It’s been great, the kids from Dear Superstar are on stage right now and I love them to death, they are great guys and we bonded the first day we got out here, it’s just there personality and we really connected on that, we have been hanging with those kids every night. And Filter growing up in the nineties and listening to those guys it’s great to see MR fucking Richard Patrick Up there he has an amazing voice, great front man great band.

We have In This Moment coming out with us in mainland Europe, Dear Superstar was just the UK, but I am stoked about the mainland Europe shows.

You are coming back to the UK to play the Download Festival on Sunday the 14th June, what stage will you be playing on? And how much are you looking forward to playing?
We will be on the second stage right below whoever is headlining that stage and we are going to fucking rip it, who's playing the Sunday do you know?
I remember most of the main stage bands like Def Leppard, Whitesnake, ZZ Top.
So its old skool rock?
Yeah it’s known as old skool rock day this year
Well fuck this I’m not old skool but I will fucking rock that mother fucker, that’s funny.
Will you have the chance to check out any of the bands playing at the festival, if so who will you be watching?
Yes of course, I always love to go and check out different bands, I would love to go and see Def Leppard, like I grew up listening to them and we have all their records on Vinyl and in America we take around our record player and an entertainment centre with a TV and speakers and Vinyl is our choice and we listen to a load of def Leppard, I loved that band growing up and still love them now.

You are doing a one off show at Bristol Academy on the 15th June, what made you choose Bristol out of all the city’s in England?
That’s where it is Bristol!, I don’t know if we have ever played there but we could come back and do London but we have done fucking London so we wanted to do something else and switch it up, Bristol seems like a great place to go and we are going to sell that mother fucker out and rip the shit out of it.
Yeah it’s my local venue and it's not that bad
Is it a nice venue?
Yeah it’s quite small but it’s alright
What size capacity is it?
I believe 1000 - 2000, 2000 maximum I would say, you are proper squished when it’s sold out and it gets hot and sweaty so will be a very intimate show I would imagine
So we are all going to be sweating like whores in a church, that’s what I like.

How would you describe your live show to someone who has never seen you play live before?
Fucking energetic, passionate if James Brown was heavy metal then that would be P Roach, that mother fucker was one of the best front men and the best entertainers, passionate and his band was tight as shit, and for us we go up and have a fucking great time, we love what we do and it shines from us, we are the kind of band that doesn’t need a live show or explosions because I consider myself as an explosion and a pyro show and light show all in one as a human being, that’s my goal before I go on stage I tell myself I am pyro I am the light show I am explosives.

Picking a set list must be tough these days now you have six albums behind you, how do you go about it?
We battle as a band and we sit down and are like fuck we need to play this song and then we are like no we need to play this fucking song, but we play a nice balance with songs from all the records, we play 4 songs off 'Infest', we only play 1 off 'Love Hate Tragedy' as right now we are more interested in playing new stuff, we play 3-4 songs off 'Getting Away With Murder' and 4-5 songs off 'The Paramour Sessions' and 6 new songs, so really focusing more on the new stuff but it’s a good balance, it’s a good even flow and it has a good energy to it and it blows my arse out that much, I come off and I think how the fuck am I going to do this again tomorrow, but somehow we do it.

Most bands end up getting presents from fans, have you had any weird presents presented to you yet?
Yeah my friends in Dear Superstar gave me a tranny porno and some lubrication, so I was like maybe tomorrow on my day off I will try and jerk off to it, he’s like it’s not gay if you don’t cum and I was like ok cool I will figure it out and see what happens, I think I have officially fucking lost my mind.

What do you think about the current state of the music scene?
You know it seems like rock music is making a bit of a comeback in America where I am at and it seems over here even in the UK it is, I know pop is so big and always will be with people like Lady Gaga but that’s for the Cunts, and for more I am glad to see that kids out there are starting bands playing garage or just playing in their garage and going off or playing Rock Band and then being inspired to play guitar, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 5 - 10 years with rock music.

Who would you say your main musical influences are?
Oh shoot that’s a good one, early on it was the Deftones, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Faith No More but now we just listen to a lot of different music, a lot of Led Zepplin, The Who, I love AC/DC to death, Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, we have found ourselves recently just listening to a lot of old music, especially Queen they are one of the best groups ever one of the best front men and best groups ever in music, miss him never got to see him live but I watch him on DVD's all the time, you fucking rock dude I fucking love you.

You love dark themes, blood and guts, so I am guessing you are big fans of horror movies, what are your favourite ones?
Nightmare On Elm Street was a really good one; Carrie was another great one, House Of 1000 Corpses that was killer.
Good film, did you like Devils Rejects
Oh yes, Devils Rejects rocked, I have a friend in the porno industry who recreated Devils Rejects as a porno
(Laughter)
Did it keep the same name or one of those classic porn renames?
No I think they just recreated the characters so he was like the fucking perverted old guy, I have loads of different kinds of friends

Where do you hope to see Papa Roach in 5 years time?
Headlining arenas worldwide is the goal, that’s the fucking goal for this band

Okay, one final random question that we ask every band; if you had a choice, what animal would you be out of a Zebra and Giraffe?
If I was a Giraffe having a sore throat would really suck because their throats are so long so I would say Zebra, they run pretty quick and they are sexy beasts if you will.
They are like emo horses
(Laughter)
Emo horses that’s fucking awesome, I’m just going to be the emo horse, just think about it if you are a Giraffe and you get a sore throat you are fucked.

Thanks for your time, is there a message you would like to give to your fans reading this?
Come see us live, come see what this band is all about even if you are sceptical about this band and you are not quite sure, come see us live because I can guarantee that we will tear your arse out, also fuck an hero and be yourself that’s the whole deal, walk your own path.

Interview by Trigger